The Duel Ends

Lan Mu transformed into a Hunter, his figure disappearing into the jungle.

His footsteps were silent, Hunting Rhythm searching for humanoid life forms.

Before long, he spotted someone hunched over, stealthily moving. It was clearly Fang Moqi.

"Amazing! He found the direction I was escaping so quickly."

Lan Mu noticed Fang Moqi was stealthily moving towards his current location.

He darted through the branches like a swift wind, leaping between trees, and soon landed near Fang Moqi's position.

Standing high up, an invisible lion stared down at Fang Moqi, looking upon him from above.

Fang Moqi, who had been moving erratically while low to the ground, suddenly froze. He hid behind a tree, looking up with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty.

"Huh?"

Seeing Fang Moqi look over, Lan Mu immediately scrambled to change his position, quickly climbing another tree.

Looking again, Fang Moqi seemed to have also sensed something. His gaze shifted, looking towards Lan Mu's direction with a serious expression.

Lan Mu was shocked. He changed locations several times, whether on trees or on the ground. Whenever he looked towards Fang Moqi, he was discovered.

However, it seemed Fang Moqi couldn't actually see Lan Mu. He only sensed that someone was staring at him from Lan Mu's direction, as if the gaze was tangible, making him alert.

"This guy, he's the first person to detect an invisible Hunter!"

Before this, Lan Mu had been invisible to everyone and never detected. He hadn't realized the White-haired Lion's hidden ability had such a flaw.

Facing someone with such high alertness, the Hunter's barely concealed killing intent was completely exposed.

"I should retreat for now."

Seeing Fang Moqi nock an arrow and shoot a probing shot in his direction, Lan Mu immediately decided to distance himself.

The invisible Hunter dodged the arrow, landing lightly on the ground. After retreating over a hundred meters, he used Hunting Rhythm to observe remotely.

As expected, at this distance, as long as he didn't look directly at Fang Moqi, he wouldn't be discovered.

In the Hunter's perception, after shooting the arrow, Fang Moqi quickly changed his location.

But unfortunately, as long as Fang Moqi didn't go beyond a kilometer, he couldn't escape Lan Mu's perception.

Lan Mu maintained a distance of less than a hundred meters, monitoring Fang Moqi from behind dozens of trees.

Seeing him stop in a certain spot, Lan Mu immediately reverted to his Elf form. He ran to the top of a large tree, using his legs' suction ability to stand on the crown without falling. While moving rapidly, he fired an arrow.

Fang Moqi hadn't engaged in this kind of duel for a long time, and he was initially extremely excited.

While carefully hiding himself, he easily found the direction Lan Mu was escaping. Moreover, he found that Lan Mu was hiding without any attempt at deception, moving through the jungle almost like an ordinary person.

To the point that Fang Moqi found him and approached within fifteen meters, Lan Mu was still standing on a tree, lost in thought.

"This level of alertness... truly inexperienced?"

Fang Moqi, disappointed, fired an arrow, aiming straight for Lan Mu's heart.

However, upon seeing Lan Mu react quickly and dodge, Fang Moqi's eyes lit up, and he immediately pursued.

"His reaction is beyond extraordinary. I couldn't dodge that arrow myself unless I was prepared... Was he doing it on purpose?"

Thinking this, Fang Moqi slowed his pace, remaining vigilant and hidden.

After chasing for ten minutes, Fang Moqi shook his head. Judging by Lan Mu's escape trail, he was very fast and constantly leaping between trees. This ability was indeed powerful, but without any skillful concealment, Fang Moqi easily determined his escape route.

"Hmm, I understand him now. Strong physique, fast speed, quick reactions, can move at high speed in trees... but his awareness is average, he lacks experience, and his reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance abilities are extremely poor."

"He's not a hunter at all, more like a war archer. In a head-on confrontation, I would surely die."

"But in the jungle, when it comes to hiding and ambushing, he's no match for me... Constantly running away is useless; you can only be on the defensive. Next time I get the chance to ambush you, I won't let you have a chance to dodge."

Fang Moqi had analyzed Lan Mu almost completely and was about to continue pursuing him.

Suddenly, a killing intent pricked his back like a thorn!

This wasn't ordinary killing intent. It was as if a ferocious beast was staring at its prey, and the weak prey could only tremble.

"What is it?"

Fang Moqi was greatly alarmed and quickly looked in the direction of the source of his sense of crisis. However, there was nothing there but leaves.

"Could it be a very small creature? No! It must be hidden very deeply, and I can't find it!"

Fang Moqi's scalp tingled. His sixth sense continuously warned him that a dangerous creature had targeted him.

He did his utmost, constantly changing his position through stealth, trying to shake off the persistent gaze.

But no matter how he hid, that sense of crisis clung to him like a leech, making his hair stand on end.

Yet, no matter how he searched for the source of the danger, he could never see the enemy.

This was an invisible enemy, and such enemies were the most terrifying!

Years of extreme survival had honed his powerful sense of crisis, but never before had he felt so helpless.

"No, I can't stay on the defensive any longer."

Fang Moqi raised his hand and shot an arrow. The arrow flew towards the source of the crisis, but it missed, passing between two branches and embedding itself in the trunk of a distant tree.

"No enemy... where? Huh? It seems to have left..."

After Fang Moqi shot this arrow, the persistent feeling of being targeted disappeared, as if the enemy in the shadows had moved away from him.

After this exchange, Fang Moqi dared not linger and kept moving.

Just as he was clearing his footprints and tracks, a faint whistling sound approached.

"Swish!"

Fang Moqi dodged just in time, but then realized it was unnecessary. The arrow had missed, hitting a tree trunk about a meter away from him.

However, it was clear his position had been exposed.

"This is Lan Mu's arrow! How did he find me?"

Fang Moqi moved again, discreetly searching his surroundings, but found no trace of Lan Mu.

"This guy must have learned to hide his tracks, or he's shooting from much farther away."

"But how could he pinpoint me from that far away?"

Fang Moqi looked up at the high canopy. He didn't believe Lan Mu could find him from a hundred meters away. To test his suspicion, he deliberately stood still.

Ten seconds later, an arrow shot down from above, piercing the layers of leaves and suddenly appearing before Fang Moqi.

"Just as I thought!"

Fang Moqi was prepared. With a quick dive, he dodged the arrow.

"How could he know my location from so far away? How did he do it?"

Fang Moqi kept moving, trying to escape Lan Mu's lock, but whenever he stopped for a few seconds, an arrow would inevitably fly towards that spot.

Although the arrows were somewhat perfunctory and unlikely to hit him, the feeling of being perpetually passive and under attack, with the enemy hidden and him exposed, was unpleasant.

Not long ago, Fang Moqi was the one pursuing Lan Mu. How had the situation suddenly reversed, with Lan Mu now chasing him?

"Twenty-seventh arrow!"

"Twenty-eighth arrow!"

"Twenty-ninth arrow!"

Fang Moqi didn't give up. While constantly fleeing, he was also counting the number of arrows Lan Mu had shot.

Moreover, starting from Lan Mu's fourth arrow, he had intentionally tried to destroy them. Each time Lan Mu shot, Fang Moqi would try to destroy the arrow before fleeing, preventing it from being recovered.

"He used one arrow to kill the crocodile earlier, plus the arrows he's used chasing me... He should be out of arrows!"

"But I can't be careless. He's wasting arrows like this, perhaps to lull me into a false sense of security. And he can still recover the three arrows I didn't manage to destroy earlier."

"Swish! Swish!"

Fang Moqi was shot at twice more. These arrows were fast and urgent, and he dodged them with great difficulty.

"He's closer now! This must have been shot from thirty meters away!"

Fang Moqi deliberately waited in place for a while longer, but no arrow came.

"Tsk, is he out? No, he should only have one arrow left..."

"He only starts cherishing his arrows now? It's a bit late."

Fang Moqi destroyed the arrows while remaining vigilant of his surroundings.

Suddenly, a voice came from the tree.

"Fang Moqi, do you surrender?"

Fang Moqi recognized Lan Mu's voice and laughed heartily, "Every arrow is precious. Your probing has been too extravagant. How many arrows do you have left?"

Lan Mu said from the treetop, "In a true duel, one arrow is enough to decide the victor."

"You're right... So, are you going to have the final showdown with me?"

As soon as Fang Moqi finished speaking, Lan Mu suddenly shouted from the treetop, "Be careful!"

The moment he spoke, Fang Moqi heard a distinct string being drawn.

"Is he shooting already?"

Fang Moqi instinctively shot an arrow back, but it flew into the leaves and encountered no other arrow.

"Swish!"

Just as Fang Moqi shot his arrow, an arrow flew from the base of the tree, heading straight for Fang Moqi's heart.

Fang Moqi's pupils contracted instantly. The arrow was incredibly fast and urgent, not something a normal bow could shoot.

The arrow broke through the air, and he could even see invisible qi power coiling around it.

Fang Moqi realized Lan Mu's trick: he feigned drawing his bow at the treetop, then instantly descended to the base of the tree to shoot the real arrow.

It was a deception, a feint.

Normally, such a trick wouldn't be enough to defeat him, but he had been careless. He hadn't realized Lan Mu could descend from a tree dozens of meters high in just over a second.

What was even more unexpected was how fast this arrow would be! Impossibly fast.

"Pfft!"

An arrow struck Fang Moqi's left ribcage, embedding itself in his muscle and getting stuck there.

He dodged it. At the last moment, Fang Moqi had dodged this arrow beyond his limits, but he had only avoided his chest and was still hit.

Just like his duel with Gates back then, he had also made an incredible dodge at such a moment.

"Cough, cough... You can really control the arrow's speed..."

Fang Moqi remained standing. He wasn't as badly injured as imagined because the Wind Speed Arrow had suddenly slowed down at the last moment, as if it were being controlled, its speed abruptly reduced. From a swift arrow that should have pierced through a person, it became a slow arrow stuck only in his muscle.

Lan Mu emerged from behind a tree, holding only that cheap, standard recurve bow. His quiver was empty.

"Fang Moqi, you made the same choice as Gates."

Fang Moqi chuckled, "Yeah! I'm the same kind of person as him..."

"To win! You absolutely cannot get hit in the chest!"

"Unless one side dies or concedes, the duel will continue. You showing up now, are you giving up?"

"It's over!"

Fang Moqi nocked an arrow and locked onto Lan Mu's chest.

Lan Mu stood there completely unguarded, wearing his hat and sunglasses. He calmly said, "You lost."

"Thump!"

An arrow flew out from behind Fang Moqi and struck him squarely in the back, emitting a low thud.

Fang Moqi's back was hit hard, and he was stunned. He loosed an arrow unconsciously.

This arrow flew straight towards Lan Mu, who gracefully sidestepped, easily dodging it.

Compared to Fang Moqi, Lan Mu's dodge was flawless.

Lan Mu picked up the arrow and laughed, "As long as it's not a sneak attack, you'll never be able to hit me."

Fang Moqi turned back in disbelief, looking behind him. An arrow lay quietly on the ground.

To be precise, this wasn't a normal arrow, but a straight branch, its tip sharpened into a point by a sharp object.

"A... branch?"